Man City 3 Southampton 1: De Bruyne the star once again as Pellegrini's men see off Saints

De Bruyne scored his seventh goal for the club and provided two assists to end Saints’ unbeaten away record.

It wasn’t always comfortable for City but it was a crucial victory in their fight to regain the title.

Fabian Delph – on his first start for the club – and Aleksandar Kolarov were City’s other scorers with Shane Long replying.

Saints have been particularly impressive away from home under Ronald Koeman but Manuel Pellegrini’s men were soon swarming all over them with Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg called immediately into action.

Stekelenburg denied Raheem Sterling after only 54 seconds then just held on to a Kolarov free-kick.

But City made the breakthrough in the ninth minute when Sterling robbed Maya Yoshida and sped down the left before crossing low to give De Bruyne a tap-in goal.

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They were dismayed when what looked like a blatant handball by Steven Davis was not punished with a penalty.

But from the resultant corner, City doubled their lead with in just the 20th minute.

The ball was cut back low by De Bruyne to Delph, whose on-target left-foot drive from outside the box took a deflection off Virgil van Dijk to give Stekelenburg no chance.

The unfortunate Van Dijk tried to make instant amends but his right-foot drive crashed off the bar.

Long also drew a save from Willy Caballero – deputising for the injured Joe Hart – as Southampton threatened on the break.

And four minutes into the second half, they pulled a goal back. The lively Sadio Mane crossed from the right and Long climbed well to head in smartly.

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STAR MAN: De Bruyne was Man City's talisman today

“He took a kick on the heel and we’ll see tomorrow how it is. I don’t think it is an important injury”

Manuel Pellegrini on Aguero's injury

City started to feel more comfortable again when they scored their third goal in the 69th minute. De Bruyne was involved again with a clever delivery to Kolarov after a neat backheel by substitute Wilfried Bony.

The Serbia left-back then drilled the ball into the far side of the goal to seal the points in an entertaining match in which Southampton played their part.

City welcomed back David Silva but Aguero gave them a scare when he hobbled off in the 64th minute.

But Pellegrini said: “He took a kick on the heel and we’ll see tomorrow how it is. I don’t think it is an important injury.

“The plan was always to take him off around then, after three games in a row following his hamstring injury, not because he had a pain in his heel.”

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CROCKED: Aguero limped off in the second-half

The Argentine striker is unlikely to be risked in Tuesday’s Capital One Cup quarter-final at home to Hull.

Pellegrini said of City’s performance: “It was a very important reaction after a week which hasn’t been easy.

“It was important after the Liverpool game because you can’t drop points at home if you want to challenge for the title. I was very happy with the performance.”

Unhappy Koeman said: “There were some strange decisions by the referee and they were not in favour of Southampton.

“But this match was not a question of tactics or the line-up – it was about the mistakes we made in the first 20 minutes.

“We were lucky it was only 2-0 then, because we lost every ball and if you make mistakes against a team like Manchester City, they will punish you.”